The “confrontational” tone dominating both global and national politics is “deepening instability and unpredictability day by day”, Pope Leo XIV wrote in his message for World Peace Day. Source: CNS.
“It is no coincidence that repeated calls to increase military spending, and the choices that follow, are presented by many government leaders as a justified response to external threats,” he wrote in the message for the January 1 observance.
But peace must be protected and cultivated, Pope Leo said. “Even when it is endangered within us and around us, like a small flame threatened by a storm, we must protect it.”
Throughout the coming year, Pope Leo will give visiting heads of state signed copies of his message, which was released by the Vatican yesterday, and Vatican ambassadors will distribute it to government leaders in the countries where they serve.
The theme of the Pope’s message, “Peace be with you all: Towards an ‘unarmed and disarming’ peace,” begins with the first words he said to the crowd in St Peter’s Square on May 8, the night of his election.
Pope Leo wrote in the message that he and all religious leaders have an obligation to teach and preach against “the growing temptation to weaponise even thoughts and words” and to condemn the use of religion to justify violence and exaggerated forms of nationalism.
“Unfortunately, it has become increasingly common to drag the language of faith into political battles, to bless nationalism, and to justify violence and armed struggle in the name of religion,” the Pope wrote.
“Believers must actively refute, above all by the witness of their lives, these forms of blasphemy that profane the holy name of God,” Pope Leo said.
What is needed instead, he said, is prayer, spirituality and ecumenical and interreligious dialogue “as paths of peace and as languages of encounter within traditions and cultures.”
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Pope urges people to protect, cultivate even smallest signs of peace, hope (By Cindy Wooden, CNS)
